Ella Mai has been focused on promoting her self-titled debut album, which just dropped last week. The internet, however, hasn’t been able to move past the drama between her label 10 Summers and Cash Money singer Jacquees, whose remix of “Trip” was removed from YouTube and SoundCloud in September. During an appearance on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning, Mai finally addressed the issue head-on.
“I don’t want people to think different than what the actual situation is, but a lot of it is people don’t know the actual ins and outs of the industry,” she said, denying that she has a problem with people covering or remixing her music. “No, I don’t mind at all… ‘Boo’d Up,’ there was 5,000 different remixes. So it’s not that. It’s just that when it comes to someone trying to monetize, it becomes a whole different issue on the label side. That’s never going to work.” She also denied having any issue with Jacquees personally, saying she’d met him in the past and that they were cool.
Mai’s label boss DJ Mustard called out Jacquees on Twitter last month after he voiced complains about his remix being taken down. “When you monetize content you don’t own, you are stealing,” he wrote. “Ella had no say in the matter… Ella started doing covers and we support all her fans and fellow artists doing the same.”
For his part, Jacquees has denied trying to monetize his cover, which was released solely on YouTube and SoundCloud. He’s made a name for himself in part by releasing mixtapes full of remixes (or “quemixes,” as he calls them) of popular songs.
Mai’s “Trip” is sitting at a peak of No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week, her second hit single this year after “Boo’d Up.”
Watch her full interview above and catch up on all the lyrics to Ella Mai’s “Trip” on Genius now.
